Guild Wars 2

I figure, we should have a thread talking about this, for those of us who like to use “proper” names for our characters in regards to the lore. (frankly, I’m thinking each race sub-forum should have a thread stickied for discussion of naming conventions)

I personally have a fondness for, in particular, giving sylvari “titles” in their names. Such as my elementalist, Nadriel the Silver. I’ve also got a sylvari thief set aside for the future, named Redax of Nightshade.
I’ve even got a third sylvari set aside. I intend to follow this same naming convention, but have yet to choose between Silent, Swift, or Nimble.

How do some of you go about choosing roleplay-friendly names for your sylvari?

Find Irish/Welsh/Scottish name.

Done.

Nearly every sylvari NPC you encounter will have the same naming convention. They don’t seem to bother with titles or last names.

Leaf.3156:

Find Irish/Welsh/Scottish name.

Done.

Nearly every sylvari NPC you encounter will have the same naming convention. They don’t seem to bother with titles or last names.

Well they don’t seem to bother with “second names” in general, which is why I went for the titular naming style. It’s probably easy to find a unique Celtic name that isn’t used yet, but eventually they’ll all be used up!

And yeah, my own name choices aren’t Celtic, but that’s specifically because I’ve used the names before. I’ve got a LONG list of names I typically use for RP-friendly characters.

What about “elvish” names? Sylvari are pretty much the “elves” of this game, so wouldn’t those type of names be somewhat fitting for them as well?

Celtic names— Irish, Scottish, Welsh, etc. Also french names.

A few have last names and titles, like ’What’s his name of the Wyld’ and ’What’s her name Leafyleaves’. But that’s ones who’ve racked up a reputation, either among their own or others.

Personally, I decided to improvise on the game’s lore. I think the standard view is that Sylvari names are supposed to be inspired by Celtic names/words. I like this idea because it accentuates how they’re more Fae- or Faerie-like than elves. But I decided to do something a bit different…

I read somewhere (I think it was in an interview with one of GW2’s designers) that Sylvari are born with an innate understanding of their names based on their experiences in The Dream. I love this idea. I also like how in the character creation we’re asked to choose a dream-experience or dream-image that expresses our character. Finally, I read in the lore that Sylvari are exposed to the emotions and memories and dreams and experiences of other sentient beings while they’re in the dream, and these things sort of “program” their identities.

So, mulling all of this over, I decided to use naming conventions that typically get associated with Native American cultures—the idea of a chosen name that’s descriptive of a meaningful, identity-defining life experience. I imagined my Sylvari waking up with these memories of things they’d seen in the dream and naming themselves based on an image or experience that they innately understood to epitomize their identities. So, for example, one of the last things my Sylvari thief saw before he woke was an image of crows circling above a wheat field. (The idea was inspired by a Van Gogh painting.) He took the name “Crows in the Wheat.” My Sylvari engineer is haunted be a memory of seeing a group of clockwork puppets dancing on water. He named himself “Dances on Water.”

So, yeah, I tried to riff a bit on the game’s lore, and I came up with a different set of naming conventions—names as little snippets of poetry that express my characters’ identities and experiences while in the dream. Also, it makes it a lot easier to find names that haven’t been poached by other players. (Not a lot of people running around with names like “Crows in the Wheat.”)

Basically, Sylvari are Gaelic/Irish type lore-related names. I only know because I planned on naming myself “Eithne” meaning kernel after about 10 or so days of browsing hundreds of tree/ogham/translational/naming sites, but it turned out a Sylvari NPC had the name already so I couldn’t get it. >.<

I definitely see the obvious trend that Sylvari don’t have last names or titles. I’m guessing this is due to the fact that the Sylavri are such a new race that they haven’t built up reputations to gain titles. To gain a title is a big thing, you have to be quite renowned to attain one. Also, they don’t have any last names because they have no lineage beyond the Pale Tree; thus no one to gain one from. Only having a first name makes sense to me.

I remember reading somewhere that their names could also be inspired by what they saw in their dream, though can’t remember where I saw this. As for last names/titles/etc. It’s possible that a Sylvari that spends it’s time around other races may end up earning a last name/title from the other races/friends. Such as the second in command of the vigil. Being “of the Wyld”. My own Sylvari has a “last name” inspired by a single moment in her dream, but didn’t take it on till spending time with more humans and other races. I simply assume Sylvari around other races would want a second name for themselves, while as ones who stay by other Sylvari may not take one on. My two cents. Anyhow, too late to change my character’s name to add “of the” or “the” into it.

“As for last names/titles/etc. It’s possible that a Sylvari that spends it’s time around other races may end up earning a last name/title from the other races/friends. "

I like this idea. The way I see it, the Sylvari are a youthful enough race that they’re still inventing their culture.

They’ve only been around for a few decades. The world is still new to them. I’ve overheard a few NPC interactions in The Grove where Sylvari will talk about exploring the world and being awestruck at how other races live, bringing back souvenirs from their travels. So, in the same way, I can see the Sylvari borrowing conventions from the other races as they start to cobble together their own culture, returning from faraway lands decked out in odds combinations of clothes and sporting names inspired by what they’ve seen of the other races.

This is something I really like about the Sylvari lore in the game. The lore is flexible enough to allow you to rp them in a couple of ways. On the one hand, it’s possible to rp them as Fae-like beings, with Celtic names and courtly mannerism inspired by chivalric literate. Or, you can rp them as an intensely curious race, newly born, that’s trying to figure out what it means to be Sylvari. (Incidentally, I love how Anet tweaked fantasy conventions, so that the elf-like beings in the game are the youthful race, whereas the humans are the “old” race, whose glory days are fading. Take that Tolkien!)

I personally went with a Gailic and Norlandic combination, and i linked my name to my profession and trees. Mainly the Yew, as it’s the tree to make bows/axes from, during my search (internet) on translating Yew to Gailic or Norlandic i came across a Norlandic ‘god’ of archery that happened to have his hall in a Yew-garden/forrest. The name of that place sounded rather cool. With some minor changes to get a nice ring to the name: Idho Ydhalis … Yew ‘of the’ Yewgarden (or as an indirect translation: Yew from the branch of rangers/yews) …

In general i think Irish, Gailic, Norlandic names look realy cool, but do watch out that you don’t end up with a name that would better suit a Norn. I think plant related names are rather cool aswell, and seeing that plants have a whole bunch of names (species, family, kind, etc) it’s not to hard to find one that signifies the plant you have in mind. Also, these names tend to be greek or latin, and as such they also give this ‘foreign’ look to them, while ‘insiders’ can realy marvel at the name you picked. Esp. if you make sure your sylvari design complements the name. During a BWE for example, i made a sylvari-cactus-thief, and i named her after the ‘morning-dew’ meat eating ‘cactus’. Sorry for not remembering the exact name :P

So while not a true ‘convention’ those would be the things i would look at for my sylvari names. Kind of ‘plant/tree/shroom’ in latin/greek, perhaps a name linked to profession profession, names in Irish, Gailic, Norlandic <- possible translations from ‘already taken’ english names.

Also don’t forget that your character may have been ‘given’ a last name due to comming into contact with other races. A human asking your character for a name, and you answering ‘thorn’, may well reply ‘thorn how?’, what you mean ‘thorn how?’, well usually sentient living being also have a last name, a family name. Hmm but all sylvari are my family. “well who are your mother and father?”, i was born from the Pale tree… “Well then Thorn of the Paletree” … or “You look as beautiful as a colorful rose” … ‘thorn rosepettle’ … another way of going about this could be "Thorn of the Thiefbranch’, or ‘of the branch’, ‘somethingbud’, ‘something seed’ etc…

Anything of Gaelic Origin (read welsh, scottish and irish)
I have a winter naming theme so i went with Oighear, which is Winter in gaelic

Abriel is my name, and as a secret name it gave it self from a dream it had Lafiel.

So Abriel Lafiel.

Reason, I read a book a series of books. Years back and the main character was Abriel Lafiel and here entire culture was a lot like the sylvari.

The sylvari reminds me of them actually.

So all my sylvari will have names from there soceity.

I spent over half an hour looking for a suitable name for my Sylvari. I looked up names of poisonous plants and translated them to latin and greek. All the good flower-names were already taken (ofcourse) so I had to improvise a little.

I found the greek/latin name Asphodelio, but it was taken, so I ended up naming my character “Asphodelius” instead. I wasn’t a big fan of the name at first, because it’s almost impossible to pronounce. But people started to call me Aspho and I really like that as a nickname because it’s easy to remember and unique

Well, the way I came up with naming my Sylvari was to take a broad genus name of a plant and add on a noun that either goes with or contradicts your character’s personality. I can give my character’s name as an example. It would be “Aster Proud”.

Think that for the Asura I know there is a names’ convention, I do not know if it is stated more or less officially somewhere that convention for Sylvaris’ names, Well, I know that Sylvaris’ names use to be of Gaelic origin (read Welsh, Scottish or Irish), nevertheless, I do not think that it is a stated convention.

My Sylvari’s mesmer name is Tansaku that is of Japanese origin (meaning “seeker”). Nevertheless, before considering that name I was thinking to name it Anekanta (meaning “non-onesided”), this is a word of hindi/sanskrit origin. Because Sylvari’s zone in my view is like a rain forest, a warm whether area, I do not see any connection with Gaelic, but with India. As in India there is a millennial long vegetarian tradition, I come to think that a vegetable race may be friendly to their names.^^

One word names may be better for Sylvari than two or more words names, Sylvari are yesterday born, they do not have a familial tradition -as their father is the Dream and their mother is the Pale Tree, so one word names are alright. Only, may be, if you think that a Sylvari may be the reincarnation of some human of the past, as it may be, then the Sylvari might take the name of that human. Actually, it is Human and Norn the two races that may have a tradition to use several words names.

Not knowing anything about Sylvari lore when I rolled the character, I decided they’d probably be named after plants and went for an old folk name for dandelions: Weatherteller.

I went Gaelic with mine. Single word, no want for a title.

Donall (Pronounced Do[p. Doe]-nall[p. like hall, ball, tall].

Couldn’t be happier <3